Joe McCleery and Supriya Malik awarded £103k to study early behavioural intervention for young children with autism

Posted on 24 Sep 2012

Dr Joe McCleery and incoming overseas PhD student, Supriya Malik, from the School of Psychology have been awarded £103,272 from the UK charity, Autistica, and Fortis Healthcare (India) for a research project entitled 'The effects of gesture training on the neural processing of auditory and visual gestures in children with autism.’ This funding supports collaborative research with Dr Jo Moss (University of Birmingham), and Dr Brooke Ingersoll (Michigan State University, USA).

Dr Joe McCleery (pictured right) from the School of Psychology has been awarded £103,272 from Autistica (UK) and Fortis Healthcare (India) for a research project entitled 'The effects of gesture training on the neural processing of auditory and visual gestures in children with autism.’ Collaborators on this research include Assistant Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University, Dr Brooke Ingersoll, and Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, Dr Jo Moss. The project will support incoming overseas PhD student, Ms Supriya Malik (pictured left), as she conducts a pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of a behavioural intervention programme for increasing gesture and language skills in young children with autism spectrum conditions. Brainwave activity will also be recorded before and after the intervention, in order to further our understanding of how behavioural intervention affects brain functioning and development in these children.